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Wife of missing hiker from Canada describes 'hell' each day brings since Paul Miller disappeared at Joshua Tree

Paul and Stephanie Miller, of Guelph, Ontario, were vacationing in the desert when Paul, 51, went missing while hiking at Joshua Tree National Park on July 13, 2018.(Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie Miller)

“Hell” is how Stephanie Miller describes the past 37 days of waiting, wondering where her husband is and what could have happened to him when he left her July 13 for what was supposed to be a short hike at Joshua Tree National Park.

As park officials and volunteers continue efforts to find Paul Miller, 51, of Guelph, Ontario, Stephanie Miller, her children and friends said they refuse to give up hope that he is alive — somewhere.

“Until I have proof otherwise, I will continue to hope,” Stephanie Miller said.

“This is my daily companion, my best friend, the person I share every tidbit of life with and the waiting and the not knowing ... the uncertainty, has been terrible,” she said of her husband in a telephone interview Friday night from a friend’s home in Guelph.

Miller gets through each day one moment at a time, she said.

“A lot of people are sending good thoughts and prayers and I think that is helping sustain me,” she said.

Stephanie Miller last saw her husband of 26 years about 9 a.m. July 13 — the final day of an anniversary trip that started in Las Vegas and brought them to Joshua Tree for a week of hiking.

“We had just had breakfast and went back to the hotel room. I had been planning on going on the trail with him, but just wasn’t quite feeling up to it so we planned that I would stay back at the hotel,” she said.

Paul Miller, an avid outdoorsman and experienced hiker, was to be back at their hotel in Twentynine Palms by checkout time at 11 a.m. When he didn’t return, Stephanie Miller grew concerned, but decided to give him another hour.

He didn’t take his cell phone — which, she said, is typical.

At noon, Stephanie Miller called park officials and reported her husband missing. By 12:30 p.m., a search team was in place.

“I don’t know if he’s still in the park or if he made his way out and is wandering. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

Stephanie Miller

They found Miller’s car, a rental the couple had picked up in Vegas, at the Fortynine Palms Oasis trailhead. But that’s all.

“We have a witness who saw (Miller) at the trailhead that morning, but that’s all,” Park Superintendent David Smith said Saturday. “It is really disconcerting. But we are not going to give up.”

There have been no other traces of Miller — no footprints or empty water bottles. No sunglasses or camera parts to indicate he may have fallen or run into some trouble along the way, officials say.

“At first, I thought that he maybe fell and hurt his ankle or something like that and that’s why he couldn’t make his way back,” Stephanie Miller said.

“Now I just don’t know anymore. I don’t know if he’s still in the park or if he made his way out and is wandering. I don’t know what to think a anymore,” Miller said.

It was Paul Miller’s first time on the Fortynine Palms Oasis trail, which is about a 3-mile hike – 1½ miles in and out the same way – with a 300-foot elevation gain that takes two to three hours to complete, according to the National Park Service.

A family friend remains in daily contact with park officials regarding search efforts, then relays the information to her either in person, by email or telephone.

“We found it’s easier if one person is coordinating that,” Miller said.

“I don’t know where my husband is, but I know that my children are here and they need me, so I need to be here for my children,” Miller said, ready at a moment’s notice to return to California when her husband is found.

Miller’s family and friends are grateful for all that is being done to find him.

“We know that there are volunteers out there giving their personal time ... to look for Paul and to bring some answers for Stephanie and his children and friends. We want to thank them because we realize that is a very difficult job and they are very giving in that respect,” family friend Ainsley Otten said.

Still, being nearly 2,500 miles away in Canada, the waiting brings some frustrations and questions if all that can be done is. For example, they wonder why the FBI or the nearby Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms haven’t been called in to help.

“There are different jurisdictional issues in California than in Canada,” Otten said. “And that has added layers into the learning curve for all of us in trying to understand why some actions may or may not have been taken ... compared to what we may see as reasonable here.”

NOT FORGOTTEN

Park Superintendent Smith said he understands the family’s concerns.

As of Saturday afternoon, he said, there were no new clues as to what happened to Paul Miller.

“I assure them, the park service will not forget about Mr. Miller. We are doing all that we can,” Smith said.

The FBI, he said, is called in “only if there is a murder or homicide and at this point, there is no indication that is the case ... nothing to indicate this was a planned disappearance.”

“I assure them, the park service will not forget about Mr. Miller. We are doing all that we can.”

Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has a detective dedicated to the search for Paul Miller, Smith said, and working with the park’s investigator.

Help from the U.S. Marine Corps — or any branch of the military — can be requested in an emergency, but “in this particular case we had enough people” and resources available in the early days of the search, Smith said.

The National Park Service is the federal government’s primary agency for search and rescue.

Since July 13, “park staff have coordinated an extensive search including teams doing technical, ground, helicopter, K-9 and tracking searches. To date, the search has included 20 K-9 units and over 600 searchers putting in more than 6,000 hours” to find Miller.

The heat has hindered efforts some and forced rescuers to at times start at 4 a.m. and by 9 a.m. they are returning to the command post exhausted, Smith said.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department — deputies, detectives, search and rescue and emergency services; California Rescue Dog Association; Nevada Search and Rescue; and the National Park Service with personnel from the Investigative Services Branch, Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley National Park, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Joshua Tree National Park all have participated in the effort to find Miller, Smith said.

Most recent searches have concentrated on more remote sections of the greater Fortynine Palms Oasis area.

“Due to steep ravines and cliffs, technical specialists with high-angle rescue skills are being used to complete a series if grid searches in the northern section of the 794,000-acre park,” Smith said.

Miller isn't the first hiker to go missing in Joshua Tree, though most, officials say, are found safe and unharmed.

That wasn’t the case for Joseph Orbeso, 21, and Rachel Nguyen, 20, of Westminster, who went missing while hiking on the Maze Loop trail at Joshua Tree on July 27, 2017. It was in October that their remains were found.

In May, Claire Nelson of Canada, got turned around while hiking the Lost Palm Oasis Trail in Joshua Tree, fell and broke her pelvic bone, but survived four days and three nights until rescuers found her.

Family and friends are keeping Paul Miller’s disappearance in the forefront through social media with regular postings on Twitter and Facebook, hopeful that by doing some someone will see him — alive and safe.

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the Stephanie Miller with bills as her husband has been the primary source for income while she went back to school for her teaching degree. To date, the fund has raised nearly $32,000.

“It’s hard to not have hope that he’s alive. We don’t know any different,” Otten said. “Paul’s a fighter. He wouldn’t go down easy. So, until we know where he is and what condition he’s in, we will hope that he’s walking home and in the door to Stephanie.”

Anyone with information about Paul Miller or his whereabouts can call Joshua Tree National Park at (909) 383-5651.